


Predestination, or Carefully Weighed Business Strategies

by Meatball42



Series: Rare Pairs [81]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Breaking Up & Making Up, Canon Compliant, F/F, First Meetings, Happy Ending, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-03-30 00:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19030759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: Hope's mother died being a hero, and Hope wasn't one to repeat the mistakes of the past.





	Predestination, or Carefully Weighed Business Strategies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lionessvalenti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/gifts).



June, 1997

Hope knew she was screwed when Director Carter reached out and touched her shoulder one day as she was going through the meet and greet line.

“My dear, is this a bumblebee?”

“Nope!” Dad crowed before Hope could say anything. “It’s a wasp, just like her mom!”

Hope stared at the ground. At Dad’s work luncheons, everything she said got taken the wrong way. It was better to just be quiet and let them all think she was a shy, well-behaved young lady.

That worked pretty well with most of her father’s friends.

Director Carter smiled with bright red lips. “I have someone for you to meet.”

She took Hope's hand and walked her through the light crowd. This was an outdoor event, in the backyard of Director Stark’s big house. There were wrought-iron tables and teacups and napkins and Hope hated all of it. Stark’s house should have had interesting technology, right? But no, just floral arrangements and uncomfortable cushions and servants and small talk.

Hope hated pretty much everything about it.

They approached the kiddie area, which Hope had stopped hanging around a few years ago when she turned twelve and judged herself old enough for adult conversation. That was before she realized that the adults sucked, too.

“Sharon!” Director Carter called. A blonde girl came running over from a picnic table where kids were drawing.

“Yes Auntie!”

“I’d like to introduce you to Hope Pym. Hope, this is my great-niece, Sharon. She has a bee soulmark as well.”

Hope stared in horror at the little blond-haired, blue-eyed girl squealed in excitement. Sharon started to hop on one foot, holding up the other, and pulled her sock down. “Like this?”

Hope couldn’t really tell for sure because of the bouncing, but… it did look like her wasp.

“Do we match?!” the kid shouted.

Basically, it was the worst day of Hope’s life.

  
  


June, 2004

Hope arranged her vacation time around the trip without informing her father of anything. When they got into a fight in his office the night before she left, she sniped at him that she was going to Virginia Beach with friends, because she had friends, because she wasn’t an angry bastard with no people-skills.

He was so predictable that the argument and the redirect were both part of her plan.

The Carter clan were scattered around D.C. Sharon’s parents had a house in Alexandria, an old-money mansion with well-kept lawns. Hope checked in to an upscale hotel near Chesapeake Beach, and Sharon came to stay the weekend with her.

It was a special weekend. Hope had been imagining it for two years. They went sailing, ate at an expensive restaurant on the water, and they made love for the first time on silk sheets. Afterwards, Sharon, well-muscled from gymnastics, wrestled her way into being the big spoon. Hope cuddled back into her soulmate’s warm body and they dozed off watching the curtains billow in the ocean breeze.

“I’m going to work for SHIELD,” Sharon told her the next morning over pancakes. She bit her lip, those wide blue eyes apologetic as Hope stared.

“I thought….”

“I know. But it’s what’s right for me. I know you love business and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but… this is what I have to do.”

Hope could feel her heart breaking as her plans fell to pieces around her, but she nodded. “Okay… Are you still going to be around D.C.? There are good companies over here, even better than Pym in a lot of ways. I have contacts here, I could start putting out applications… what is it?”

Sharon was crying. Quietly, her expression mostly blank and controlled. “I… I’m not supposed to be in contact with people. For a few years. It’s part of the program.”

“An indoctrination program?” Hope’s heart beat heavily in her chest. “That’s crazy!”

“Peggy says it’s normal.”

“No!”

The sound of her own shout surprised Hope. She wasn’t one for outbursts. She always had control of herself and her surroundings. Except now, she could feel the one good thing in her life slipping away.

What was the point of building up Pym Tech, of sticking with her father for all these years, if not to support her family? Without Sharon, it was all for nothing.

“Hope, I’m sorry.” Sharon got up and came around the table, but Hope walked to the balcony to avoid her touch. “I’m sorry! I know it’s not what we planned—”

“You—”

Her chest heaved and her eyes burned. Hope leaned on the railing because her arms felt like jelly. “I can’t believe this.”

“It’s only a few years.”

_It's only a few years._

The last vestiges of softness Hope had been protecting since her mother's death turned to stone in Hope’s chest.  She forced herself to stand up straight, staring out over the waters of the Chesapeake. “No. You want to go off and be a secret agent? You want to die for a country that’ll never know you exist? Do it then. Be a hero. But you’re not taking me down with you.”

When she turned around, in control once again, Sharon looked horrified. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, you can go be a SHIELD agent. But don’t expect me to wait for you.”

  
  
  


May, 2019

War Machine, the de facto leader of the Avengers, called Scott and asked them to come meet some other people.

“Well what he said was, ‘Bring any other shrinky or growy folks you know’,” Scott relayed over dinner. “And then something about exchanging phone numbers before the next big crisis.”

Hope and Scott RSVP’d. Dad was busy with some legal stuff. Mom showed up at the last minute with a few friends Hope had never met.

The event took place in a reception hall at the Wakandan consulate in Los Angeles. There were a lot of strangers and a few Hope recognized from the battle against Thanos—like that one woman who rode in on a Pegasus. The first person they saw who they actually knew was Ava.

It was so strange seeing Ava again. Hope knew that the world had moved on five years without them, but Ava hadn’t disappeared in the snap, and she wouldn’t tell them what had happened to her in the meantime. She had control of her abilities now, but her eyes looked more haunted than ever. She was there with a few other young people who had the same tendency to look over their shoulders.

Scott was excited to see Sam, his old ‘liaison’ with the Avengers. Sam was apparently Captain America now, and after everything that had changed, Hope couldn’t even find it in herself to be surprised.

“Hey, let me introduce you to Mantis, then all you bug people can be together,” Sam cracked to Scott with a toothy grin. As they moved through the crowd, Hope caught sight of someone she thought she’d never see again.

“You want to meet her?” Sam asked, noticing where her attention had gone. “Hey, Sharon!” he called, before Hope could say anything.

The crowd let Sharon slip though. She and Hope stared at each other for a long minute.

Sam, apparently realizing what he’d done, grabbed Scott. “I think the Guardians went this way,” and dragged Hope’s partner away before he could put his foot in it, as usual.

Mom stepped between them and gave Sharon a hug. They talked quietly for a moment. Hope couldn’t hear what they said over the noise, but when they broke apart, Mom kissed Hope’s forehead and disappeared into the crowd.

Sharon gestured for Hope to follow her out of the hall. They ended up in a small conference room off the main hallway. Hope could only stare at Sharon for a good minute.

Sharon hadn’t gotten much taller than she was at 19. Her hair was longer, with highlights. She was dressed stylishly, and Hope couldn’t tell if her clothes were hiding weapons.

Hope's soulmate was in her thirties now, a successful woman, no longer the child she’d been when Hope left her and steeled herself against looking back.

“I didn’t realize you were the Wasp,” Sharon said at last.

“Which one are you?”

Sharon shook her head. “I’m not really one of those guys. I just help them out. I’ve been with Homeland Security for a few years. But I’m going to be seconded to the Avengers. Kind of like a liaison.”

Hope tried to come up with something to say other than, ‘God you look beautiful.’ “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other then.”

“Are you joining?” Sharon asked. Her blue eyes widened.

Hope’s heart hurt at the sight, and she made her first snap decision in fifteen years. “Yes.”

So what if Pym Tech was a pile of rubble, and her financial security with it? So what if, five minutes ago, Hope had been uncertain about signing her name to something she wasn’t sure would last? So what if she’d been arguing for their reputations, while Scott insisted they should be heroes and her mother said they had a duty?

Hope didn’t have anything to prove to anyone except the woman standing in front of her.

“I think it’s time for these jocks to see how real heroes lead the show.”

Sharon broke out in her dimply smile, and deep inside Hope realized she was finally where she was supposed to be.


End file.
